PUNCHMAGAZINE.COM 63 Deb Lemos’s recipe comes with a promise: Once you make these, you’ll never buy flour tortillas again. Any extra tortilla dough balls can be stored in the freezer. Bring them to room temperature and cook as directed. INGREDIENTS 1¹/ ³ cups (210 grams) all-purpose flour, plus more for sprinkling 1¼ teaspoons (7 grams) salt ¼ cup (56 grams) softened butter, coconut oil or olive oil 100 grams (slightly less than ½ cup) room-temperature water ½ cup (100 grams) sourdough starter, fed or unfed Whisk flour and salt together in a medium bowl. Cut butter or oil into the flour mixture using the back of a fork, a pastry knife or your fingers. Mix by hand until well incorporated or use a stand mixer with paddle attachment on low speed. Add water and sourdough starter and mix until you have a shaggy dough. On a floured surface, knead the dough by hand for 1 to 2 minutes until smooth and does not stick to your work surface. Use additional flour as needed. Cut the dough into 8 equal pieces and shape into balls. Cover dough balls with a light kitchen towel, inverted bowl or plastic wrap. Let them rest at room temperature for at least 30 minutes or up to two hours, or refrigerate for up to 48 hours. Heat a 12-inch cast-iron pan on medium-high or use a nonstick skillet. Roll out each room-temperature ball to about 8-10 inches in diameter, flouring the board, rolling pin and tortillas as needed. They should be so thin they’re almost transparent. Lay a tortilla in the hot pan and cook until it puffs and browns in patches. Flip over and cook until lightly browned, about 1-2 minutes each side. EVERYTHING SOURDOUGH TORTILLAS make it Dispelling common misconceptions about sourdough baking is another priority for Deb—first and foremost, that it’s time-consuming. “It does take time, but most of it is passive time,” she clarifies. “If you feed your starter in the morning, it takes less than five minutes and it can go weeks in the refrigerator without needing to be fed again.” Developing a routine for making dough and proofing provides flexibility to bake when the timing is convenient, she adds. Another common misconception Deb often sees is that people think their starter is “dead” when a layer of gray liquid, or “hooch,” forms on the top. “Nine out of 10 times when someone thinks their starter is dead, it really isn’t; all you need to do is feed it and see if you notice any activity and bubbling,” she says. When Deb retires from Stanford, sometime in the next few years, she plans to see where her sourdough business goes organically. She’d also like to publish a cookbook. “I’m looking at this as my encore career, and I plan to do it as long as it’s still fun,” she says. sourdough rising @everything.sourdough
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